Addictions are not limited to any particular age group. Untold numbers of America's Seniors are addicted to alcohol, drugs, smoking. TodaysSeniorsNetwork addiction section will examine the negative impact of these addictions upon the health and well-being of America's Seniors.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

How
much alcohol women drink may depend on where they live. A new study finds
one-fifth of women in Appalachian Ohio imbibe at alarming levels

Newswise, June 27, 2017 — Appalachia
— stretching from the southern tier of New York state to northern Alabama,
Mississippi and Georgia — has long experienced deep economic distress and
deprivation, and the gamut of accompanying social problems.

Compared with women living in urban
areas, women who reside in these rural areas face multiple health concerns,
including substance abuse issues, and often at greater rates. While the opioid epidemic in rural areas has gained attention, the rampant alcohol use has
not.

“Alcohol continues to be the most
prevalent and widely used and abused substance among Appalachian adults and is
reported to be the primary reason for seeking substance use treatment in the
region, surpassing drug abuse,” says Golfo K. Tzilos, Ph.D.

Tzilos is an assistant professor in
the University of Michigan’s Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry and
the U-M Addiction Center. She and Mack T. Ruffin IV, M.D., MPH, professor emeritus and chair of the Department of
Family and Community Medicine at Penn State Hershey Medical Center, studied
excessive drinking behavior in women from rural Appalachian Ohio because of a
surprising lack of empirical data.

Tzilos and Ruffin analyzed data from
the Community Awareness, Resources, and Education (CARE) Project, which
investigated determinants of abnormal cervical cytology.

More than 6,000 women older than 18
and representing 14 counties in Appalachian Ohio, 95 percent of whom were
non-Hispanic whites, participated in the original study.

Approximately 2,300 of those women
supplied relevant information about their alcohol use and other possible
predictive alcohol abuse variables. Of these, one-fifth (19.9 percent) reported
recent, heavy episodic drinking.

Heavy episodic drinking, or binge
drinking, is defined as consuming four or more alcoholic beverages — beer,
wine, wine coolers, mixed drinks and liquor — in one sitting for women.

Younger women (under age 26) were
five times more likely to binge drink than women older than 50, researchers
found. Those who identified themselves as current smokers, single and with four
or more lifetime sexual partners also had an increased adjusted risk of binge
drinking.

“One interpretation of the findings
is that these women are a vulnerable population,” says Tzilos.

“Typically, these women face a
number of disadvantages in their environment, including chronic stressors such
as limited resources and living in poverty, as well as acute stressors such as
exposure to violence and abuse, which can all play a role in the likelihood of
higher rates of alcohol use.”

Binge drinking is associated with a
broad range of hazardous behaviors, including tobacco use, risky sexual
activity, higher risks of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. These behaviors can lead to harmful consequences
that can negatively affect society as a whole.

Tzilos says primary care physicians
have an opportunity to act as a conduit between their patients and critical
health resources.

“Clinicians have the opportunity to
inquire about risky alcohol use among their patients,” says Tzilos. “In rural
settings, there are often barriers to health services that women face, including
stigma, cultural concerns of confidentiality and trust, lack of anonymity, and
lack of access and providers.”

This gap is particularly important
to address given that rural women, including those from Appalachian regions,
report a higher rate of health concerns that may be associated with, or a
consequence of, unaddressed or undertreated alcohol misuse.

Tzilos and Ruffin’s findings also
reflect what is happening at the national level. Women are increasingly
participating in risky alcohol use at younger ages.

They suggest increasing sensitivity
to this fact and work to address the obstacles to improving health outcomes for
women from Appalachian communities. This could include leveraging technology to
increase reach and access to screening, treatment and referrals.

“My future work will explore the
relationship between stress and alcohol use among women in this region,” says
Tzilos. “It may shed light on opportunities for prevention.”

Tzilos also plans to help adapt
integrative strategies to identify and reduce health risk behaviors and to
enhance protective factors among these women.

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About Me

Daniel Hines is an international-award winning communicator
with extensive experience as a senior-level communications executive with some
of America’s leading corporations, and as the founder of his own communications
consulting business since 1986. A graduate of Bradley University, where he was
elected to the Phi Kappa Phi honor society for scholastic excellence, he has
established TodaysSeniorsNetwork as a leading source of information for issues
affecting an Aging America, as well as advocacy on behalf of successful aging.
He is also a leading spokesperson and advocate on behalf of access by Americans
to safe, affordable, personally imported prescription medicines as a bulwark
against the predatory pricing practices of Pharma. His series of blogs deal with primary issues
of an Aging America, including health, safety, technology, caregiving, aging in
place, end-of-life and retirement.